April 2, 2015 –
Zhangjiajie
Have you heard of this place?
I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of it. Have you ever watched the movie "Avatar"? It was, in my brutally honest opinion, a barely tolerable sci-fi movie. Ava and Annika claim it's now their "favorite" movie. (Did you just see my eyes rolling?) The acting, the plot, the dialogues were barely tolerable…the only forgiving part about the movie is the scenery.
BUT (and here's the big but) …apparently the mountains in Zhangjiajie were the inspiration used for creating the scenery in the movie. The movie is all computer-generated (CG) and the mountains have been altered but still recognizable.
The girls had a week off from school for spring break so we decided to duck down to southern China for a long weekend trip to Zhangjiajie (ZJJ).
Are you ready for four days of breathing fresh air, hearing the birds and frogs sing, and hiking in the mountains? Sure hope so!
We just got off the plane…doesn't this look promising or what??? Mountains! Gorgeous mountains!
Did I take a photo of mops? Why, yes. Yes, I did! (why??? I thought they were colorful. Yes, it's true. I know it sounds weird but it's the truth! LOL.):
I hired a guide for our four day trip to ZJJ. Chris picked us up from the airport and off we went! He said that due to weather we would take a pass on seeing Tianmen Mountain (or "Sky Gate"…some place I've been really wanting to check out but oh well). Instead we're heading to Yellow Dragon Cave. It's about a 30-minute drive from the airport. On the way there Chris talked non-stop about the area. He told us about CCTV filming a show in the area (we've never watched CCTV so these stories went right over our heads). He also told us that the area was known for wizards and fairies. !!! Wizards and fairies??? I want to hear more about that!
The stories go that the wizards were able to raise the dead … well, not bring them back to life per say but make them able to "walk home". Now, I'd love to hear more about this!!!
Chris also mentioned that the wizards were male but they could also be female. They're typically elderly. And he said that villagers made sure to keep their dogs tied up at night so as to not scare the wizard "walking" the dead back to their homes. I wish, wish, wish I could have a) actually understood what Chris said (his English was a notch better than my Chinese) and b) found out more about these wizards. I mean, do they still exist? How does one become a wizard? How do these wizards actually raise the dead? I've got dozens more questions.
Ok.
Enough about CCTV this and CCTV that….
We're at the cave! (thank goodness…hearing about CCTV got a wee bit tedious and boring since we don't even watch TV, especially Chinese TV!)
We waited around for a few minutes while Chris bought our tickets.
This way to the entrance:
It's a damp, rainy sort of day. Makes me super glad we had the foresight to haul four umbrellas with us!
Interesting wooden water wheel display.
Chris mentioned to us that all of the displays were just that – displays. And they're quite new too.
Here's a pretend farmhouse…
Check out the drying racks of corn hanging along the wall of the house:
And those are strings of peppers drying:
Inside the cave…that's Chris (our guide):
Is this a scam?? Some very wealthy person insured the cave formations. Insured for 100 million RMB. That's a lot of money!
Check out the water falling down, through the cracks in the ceiling. This is definitely an actively forming cave.
It's hard to get a good perspective on size when looking at a photo like this one but those stalactites, stalagmites, and columns are HUGE. This cave is absolutely CAVERNOUS!!! It's VAST! This is part of the cave system is called The Dragon's Palace. Can you spot the one that's called The Rocket???
The two hour tour also included a boat ride on a man-made river.
One of the stalagmites is 50m round and 12m tall.
Actually, I think this is that HUGE column:
The Bridge of Kazadoom (so, it's not really called that but doesn't it look like it should be in "Lord of the Rings"????):
The two-hour guided tour also included a short boat ride on a man-made river…check out this boat-load of Chinese tourists:
One thing that seemed in our favor is that foreigners get to go in the "VIP" line. I didn't quite figure out what that fully meant but it seemed that we were able to go on different paths from the Chinese tourists (I'm sure they could have also gone on these paths too but most of them followed a Chinese guide).
Chris mentioned over and over and over again naming the different formations…it seems like everything looks like an eagle, a monk, a monkey, dragons, pinecones…after a while the names blurred together.
The Dragon's Head:
We did a little side tour…through a maze. Well, thank Heavens it's not a real maze but it was a neat little visit. Chris mentioned that it's difficult to tell sometimes if the formations are nature-made or man-made. Yes, they actually try to pass off a few things in here as being nature-made when they are, in fact, man-made. !!! However, I do think that most of the formations are indeed nature-made. (I'm no cave expert though!)
I couldn't fully understand what Chris was saying (again, that troublesome language barrier) but I think he was telling us that either CCTV or some Chinese studio was paying an arm and a leg to rent space inside the cave to act as a recording studio. I think that's why a small part of it was off-limits to guests. I'm not sure if this is weird or cool or true.
Aaaaaaaaa!!! The cave is about to eat my girls!
Heading to Baofeng Lake…short walk up from the parking lot:
So, we went on a boat ride…it only lasted thirty minutes. Chris told us that on the lake were ladies that would come out and sing to you. If you want to propose marriage to one of them you'd need to sing back to them and answer several questions. And if you fail to answer the questions properly you're supposed to live in the area and work for 9 years. Apparently the gentleman singing was just in that position (a failed proposal). It was all highly amusing. We did get to listen to one lady singing and the gentleman singing.
The girls and Chris at the back of the boat. Naturally the entire trip was done in Chinese:
What a pretty lake!
A pretty waterfall….I think Chris said that the waterfall got a little bit of "help":
We paid 3RMB for fish food…Ava had fun carefully and slowly metering out the food (that is until I got a wee bit tired of waiting and asked her to kindly dump out the remaining food). It looks like one fish here is leaping for joy trying to get at the food!:
So here's another thing we learned in ZJJ. This area is known for its wild Giant Salamanders. We were told that since there were plenty of Giant Salamanders in the ZJJ park area that they could be hunted and eaten. Now, this photo doesn't provide a good perspective but this salamander is about 1m long (roughly 1 yard). That's big for a salamander! (for me anyway…I'm sure they grow bigger and longer). The biggest one I've seen previously was maybe 10cm long (or smaller). BIG difference! I don't know if I could eat one of these…there was an incident recently in the news here about a business meeting in a bigger Chinese city that involved eating a rare Giant Salamander. Maybe they're not rare in ZJJ but I still wouldn't feel right about eating one. Oh, and something else that Chris mentioned: he said he wouldn't want to go swimming in a lake or river where these guys called home. Why??? Apparently they bite! I don't know if it's true but it makes a good story. Here's one in captivity:
Dinner! We asked Chris for suggestion for a restaurant serving local food. This one looked like a hole-in-the-wall kind of place and it served up some EXCELLENT dishes! Since we didn't have lunch and we only had a small meal that was served as breakfast on our flight from Beijing to ZJJ we were STARVING. We devoured everything! I think my favorite might have been the tofu dish that looked like it was covered in angry looking hot peppers. There was also a meat dish that tasted very similar to taco meat. All served with a giant bowl of rice that we didn't have to beg and plead for! (Oh, and did I mention that we got up at 4:30am to catch a 6:30am flight? Ugh! So, not only were we starving we were also down right TIRED!!!!)
We checked into our hotel…a nice place called Guanshanyue Honeymoon Mansion. It was located close to several park entrances (not walking distance but still very close). They're developing the area surrounding the hotel into a touristy walking area with shops and restaurants. As I understand it, this entire area is new. It's also located alongside the river…so it's got a pretty view. However, it's clear that they're not quite finished. We passed by many empty buildings- some being "innovated" (I think Chris really meant "renovated"). One building had been clearly burned (fire damage was very visible). There were a couple of bars, a few open squares (one which had a small nightly show which Mark and I got to watch on our last full night in ZJJ), and a handful of shops.
And guess what…we're not going to be much fun tonight. After walking up at 4:30am and going, going, going hard all day long it's time to head to bed EARLY. We'll figure out we're doing tomorrow…that'll depend on the weather!
Good night!!!!